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Vacation 2000: 1995 Vacation Redux!

For 2000, we decided to pretty much recreate our 1995 vacation without the Arizona stop. We flew to Las Vegas, rented a car, drove to San Diego, Disneyland, Los Angeles, and back to Vegas. Though we spent waaaayyyyyyyy too much money, again, at least this time the boys were old enough to appreciate it and maybe even to remember some of it.  

 

The Family in Tijuana  

The photo on the right is one of the few family pictures we have from the trip. As in 1995, we stopped in Tijuana and had our photo taken on a burro!  


 

Dam!  

Dam!  

Hoover Dam, that is. We arrived in Las Vegas Wednesday, August 9th, but didn't do anything until the next morning. The first thing on our agenda was the Hoover Dam tour. Afterwards, it was off to San Diego.
 

Tijuana  

On Friday, we spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. Afterwards, we drove down to Tijuana for a late lunch.
 

Luke  

Sunday was Disneyland day. We were lucky, we did most of the attractions we wanted with a minimum of waiting in lines. Our favorites were "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," and "The Haunted Mansion."
 

High Roller  

Tuesday it was back to Las Vegas. I had wanted to go to M&M World for the last few visits but it was always closed when I got there. This time, I pledged, we would get there. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was, you guessed it, closed! We had to settle for the Luxor's motion ride instead, which was still pretty cool! (We did finally make it to M&M World the next day.)  

Rudy and I had planned to do the "Big Shot" for a while. This photo is of the world's highest roller coaster, the "High Roller," atop the Stratosphere. We rode this coaster, but were unimpressed.
 

Big Shot  

Yes, the coaster was lame, but the "Big Shot" -- billed as the highest thrill ride on Earth -- made up for it.  

The shot up wasn't so bad, but at the top, just before the free fall was probably the scariest two seconds I've ever experienced on a ride.
 

 

Little Shot  

Yea, it wasn't a thousand feet in the air, but Luke (far right), enjoyed the Strat's "Little Shot" just the same.
 

Rudy's Birthday -- the big 1-0!  

Once again, Rudy's birthday was celebrated while we were on vacation. We had brought a few small presents for him to open. One of them, his favorite, was this set of finger inline skates to go with his collection of finger skateboards and snowboards.
 

 

Tournament of Kings  

It was our last night on vacation and one of the highlights was the "Tournament of Kings." Unfortunately, it was sold out, but Heidi managed to get a few tickets at the last minute and it was a hoot.  

Here, the boys are enjoying a "Goblet of Sprite," as Rudy called it, and a bowl of soup waiting for the rest of dinner and for the show to begin.
 


Boom!
OK, this is before my time, but I saw this photo in a museum and I had to have a copy. It's from the 50's when they were testing atomic bombs at the Nevada Test Site. The small cloud is from a ground blast about 60 miles north of downtown Las Vegas.
 


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Last updated: August 25, 2000